#9: Open Clusters in Scorpius

Open Clusters in Scorpius is the topic of Part #9 of our image presentation, where we want to share the results from our astrophotography-trip to DeepSkySafaris in Namibia.

For this post we have chosen some open star clusters and their immediate surroundings in the constellation Scorpius. Very prominent is Messier 7, visible to the naked eye, surrounded by a multitude of dark nebulae. Characteristic for this area of the Milky Way is the golden colour of the stars, caused by the dust lying in the line of sight. NGC 6231 lies in an area with various emission nebulae and in the neighbourhood of this cluster are several other open star clusters from the NGC catalogue. The Waterberg was the last stop on our tour of Namibia and was by far the "greenest" region we got to see. Shooting the star trails with a moonlit landscape was a nice way to end our trip.

Messier 7 Esprit 120

Messier 7 Baader APO

NGC 6231 250 mm Newtonian

NGC 6231 wide field Vixen FL55SS

Sandqvist 17 Esprit 100

Sandqvist 17 wide field Vixen FL55SS

Startrails Waterberg